Friday, October 23, 2009

SANTA FE, N.M. — A former investment officer for a state educational pension fund says a politically connected Santa Fe broker and his father are dodging a whistleblower lawsuit alleging improper political pressures on investment decisions.

Marc Correra, and his father, Anthony Correra, are defendants in a lawsuit brought by Frank Foy earlier this year seeking to recover money on behalf of the state for losses on pension fund investments.

Foy's lawyer, Victor Marshall, said Thursday the Correras have not been served with a summons about the lawsuit despite efforts to locate them since May.

In a court filing, Marshall said "Marc Correra has disappeared" and apparently has left the country. It also said Anthony Correra's house in Albuquerque "appears to be deserted" and that "it is not known whether Anthony Correra has left the United States."

Sam Bregman, a lawyer for Marc Correra, declined to comment on the latest allegations in the lawsuit.

Jason Bowles, a lawyer for Anthony Correra, said his client "is not trying to hide from anything."

"He is in the country. He has just not been served," said Bowles.

In an affidavit filed with the court, a process server said he went to Anthony Correra's house in late May and a man said Correra was not there. The man identified himself as a friend of Correra. After closing the door, the man was overheard to say, "Somebody was here trying to serve you."

According to another affidavit, Marc Correra's assistant told a process server late last month that Correra was "out of the country on an extensive sightseeing tour."

According to state records, Marc Correra got a share of nearly $22 million in fees as a third-party placement agent to help money management firms win investments with the State Investment Council and a state educational pension fund in 2003-2008.

Anthony Correra, political supporter of Gov. Bill Richardson, has operated his own investment firm in New Mexico. He was named by the governor to a committee that recommended hiring Gary Bland as state investment officer after Richardson was elected in 2002. He and Bland are friends.

Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- New Mexico’s chief investment officer resigned after the state was drawn into a nationwide investigation of the fees paid to politically connected agents by those seeking to win investment-management work.

Gary Bland, who served on the board overseeing endowment funds for the fifth-biggest U.S. state by area, quit yesterday, according to a letter submitted to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Bland was appointed by Richardson, a Democrat who unsuccessfully sought his party’s 2008 presidential nomination.

“Clearly, I am saddened and disappointed to render my resignation as state investment officer,” Bland wrote.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department are investigating “pay to play” practices in which money managers and their placement agents used ties to public officials to help gain access to $2 trillion in U.S. public pension systems.

State Land Commissioner Pat Lyons, a member of the investment council, said the Paul Hastings law firm of Los Angeles collected information that Bland pressured money managers doing business with the state to hire certain middlemen. The investment council hired Hastings to help it respond to a joint investigation by the SEC and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“He was soliciting third-party marketers,” Lyons said. “In fact, some of them took place after we already voted for the investment.”

Half of Fees

Lyons wouldn’t disclose the names of the middlemen, citing the investigations. Bland couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.

Marc Correra, the son of a political supporter of Richardson, shared in more than $16 million, about half of fees paid to middlemen for New Mexico investments. Correra’s father, Anthony, served on the board of political action committee Richardson set up to register Hispanic and American Indian voters.

Bland’s resignation follows the Oct. 6 guilty plea to fraud charges by Saul Meyer, founder of Dallas-based pension consultant Aldus Equity. Meyer pleaded guilty in court to fraud charges and admitted he paid $300,000 to Hank Morris, a one-time adviser to former New York state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, to secure money from that state’s pension fund.

Marc Correra is the son of Anthony Correra, a friend of Richardson who was involved in the hiring of State Investment Officer Gary Bland, the top staff ...

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Pensiongate from King" Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Schumer's "BRAIN" Hank Morris four million dollar plus home in the Hamptons to the Governors mansion in Santa Fe New Mexico. It keeps on getting bigger and bigger.

Monday, October 19, 2009

Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge-fund billionaire charged as part of a vast insider-trading case, surfaced in an earlier, separate probe into US fund raising by a ...

Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge-fund billionaire charged as part of a vast insider-trading case, surfaced in an earlier, separate probe into U.S. fund raising by a Sri Lankan terrorist group, people familiar with the probe said.

As part of that investigation, federal agents said they uncovered documents showing Mr. Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon Group, was among several wealthy Sri Lankans in the U.S. whose donations to a Maryland-based charity made their way to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, these people said. The LTTE, known as the Tamil Tigers, fought against the government of Sri Lanka in a brutal separatist war from 1976 until the LTTE was defeated in May.

(...)

He was also active politically. Data from the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks political contributions, shows Mr. Rajaratnam donated $26,200 to the Democratic Party's fund-raising arm in 2007. He also provided $4,600 in 2007 to the campaign of Hillary Clinton, now secretary of state, and $4,600 in 2008 to the campaign of President Barack Obama.

A Democratic National Committee spokesman said contributions to the DNC and the Obama campaign from Mr. Rajaratnam will be donated to charity. Representatives at the State Department didn't immediately comment.